Business model

So what are the key conditions for open-source hegemony?

* Attacking very large markets, not niche ones.
* The average customer’s technical requirements are over-satisfied by the incumbent.
* Standards are broad enough to reduce vendor pricing power and induce commoditization.

With the proper business model, an open-source vendor can exploit these conditions to make their software “go viral.” The vendor wants their software to be ubiquitous so that users get comfortable with it, test it in labs, and begin to fold it into their longer-term IT strategies. The primary goal is a worldwide user community. What capitalists often miss is that every free download is not a lost sale; it’s an advertisement on steroids, a deeply powerful method of engaging a sales prospect. And it was free of marketing cost.

research report outlining the potential for Google to become the worlds most profitable company by taking advantage of the growth of online information

Google launches vertical search on legal rulings. More and more of vertical search engines on semi-structured bodies of text will become incorporated in the general search engine, thereby undercutting the market for the expensive for-pay search engines offered by traditional publishers.

when I read this week that Google was including free turn-by-turn navigation directions with each and every Android mobile OS, I had an immediate feeling that I was witnessing a disruptive play of a magnitude heretofore unseen.